 I got a thumbs up. Let's go. Let's go Welcome back to our friends that are streaming live. I'm Santana. I'm the emcee master of ceremonies for track one this morning At wordCamplish Boa 2023. We've got a great talk coming up from my dear friend Cheryl Seud She's a former pharmacist if you can believe that or not turned super successful entrepreneur And social media influencer her social media presence Has captured the attention of hundreds of thousands of folks and so her talk today on how to create social media content That is engaging and drives impact for you. I think will be applicable for so many of us in this room So I want to give a big warm welcome from wordCamplish Boa to Cheryl Seud Cheryl take the stage Thank you, Santana. Can you guys all hear me? Okay? All right, and let's just make sure I know how to use this All right, we're good to go. So thank you again Santana for the introduction And thank you to all of you for coming to my talk this morning As Santana mentioned, I am so excited to share with you all things social media content creation As she mentioned, I am a if you look at bike, you know by profession I'm a former pharmacist but realized early on that my passion was an entrepreneurship and so a few years ago I decided to leave my profession of pharmacy and go all-in in entrepreneurship and it Definitely helped that my husband is a serial entrepreneur So I knew kind of I had an idea of where to start where to look how to kind of self-teach myself About everything I need to learn and as I started learning about all the different facets that come along with entrepreneurship I realized that my calling was in brand management social media content creation because I really loved connecting with people engaging with people creating content that that resonated with them and Through trial and error taking some courses watching some YouTube videos. I Basically learned tips and strategies that I hope to share with you all this morning on how to create compelling social media content so Most of the examples that I'll give you throughout my talk today are going to be examples that we used in Growing our own brands my husband. I have our own several companies. So talking about how we Created social media content for those brands to stand out from competitors But also talk about what I learned through my own personal sort of journey of creating a tick-tock account my own personal Instagram account of like how I learned to resonate with people and create content that was compelling so So let's first go over what I plan to cover today So you know what to expect from my talk So in this morning's talk we'll delve into the art of creating Captivating social media content that resonates with your audience and boost engagement We'll explore key elements that make content compelling such as understanding your audience Leveraging storytelling creating visually appealing posts Ensuring relevance and maximizing reach Additionally, we'll discuss AI power tools for those of you that were here for Dave's talk this morning He talked a lot about how AI is revolutionizing So many different spaces and social media content creation is definitely one of them In terms of like how you can streamline your content creation Saving you time and effort and by the end of the talk you'll walk away with practical tips strategies and tools to enhance your social media Content and for its stronger connections with your audience So whether you're a small business owner you're a marketer a social media manager this presentation I really hope will give you valuable insights to help you create more effective and engaging content So we have to talk about this device right here, you know 15 years ago device came this device came this little handheld device has become the ultimate gateway Connecting billions of people across the globe and has completely revolutionized how businesses engage with their audience It's connected like I said connected billions of people worldwide Revolutionizing how businesses engage with their audience social media apps are now at our fingertips and because of that brands now have Unprecedented access to their customers in real time. So platforms like Facebook and Instagram Twitter LinkedIn TikTok Snapchat YouTube Businesses have never had a moment like we do right now to showcase their products share their stories build meaningful connections and the impact of these smartphones goes beyond connectivity through It goes beyond connectivity. They have transfer. They have also transformed consumer behavior Shaping how we discover how we research how we make purchasing how we make Purchasing decisions and with AI now things have transformed on a whole other level with personalized marketing approaches So with this ever-changing landscape and different platforms And now with AI becoming more and more mainstream Small brands big brands medium-sized brands no matter what kind of product or service you're selling We all need to be adapting our strategies constantly and knowing how to stand out from the rest and understanding This is really important because even Dave mentioned this with the AI understanding the psychology of human behavior at the end of the day that human connection Understanding what that real person is looking for whether it's a chatbot from AI or a direct message from an actual human It's important for brands to understand all of this so that they can differentiate from everyone else Communication with your audience is also instrumental for success because social media provides that two-way interaction fostering immediate immediate connection So the key ingredient in creating content that is the key ingredient in creating content is creating content that is Compelling so what is compelling the definition of compelling is evoking interest attention or admiration in a powerfully irresistible way Powerfully irresistible very powerful words, and this is really how you stand out So compelling content can capture the attention of your audience and keep them engaged Which then increases the likelihood that they will remember your message and take action, right? Because you have to obviously we all know that when people are scrolling when people are on the various different platforms They may not be in the market of your product or service at that time But you need to make sure that your content is compelling enough that they remember you at the moment They want to make that purchase. Oh, yeah I remember that company that sells those eco-friendly plates or remember that company that helps people to move to Portugal I want to go back to their page and you know kind of find out what services they offer Compelling content can capture Compelling content can also build trust and credibility with your audience And it establishes your brand as a thought leader in your particular industry or niche It can help establish a brand's voice They're the brand's personality brand values making it easier to connect with your target audience so These are really important in terms of relating with your audience and differentiated in what is definitely a very saturated market So this this statistic 54% of social media users say they browse social media when they're looking for ideas inspiration or to research products or services It highlights the importance of creating compelling content that provides value and meets the needs of your audience whether they're seeking information looking for something to buy Browsing for entertainment or just looking for inspiration So by understanding your audience's motivations and interests and simultaneously Understanding why people use one platform for inspiration like Pinterest for example or another one for buying Instagram Facebook ads you can create personalized content that resonates with them and drives engagement loyalty and ultimately business success so for example in the Multi-million dollar brand that I manage the social media accounts for we were we had platforms across all of them We used Pinterest to give people inspiration on how to use our products So it was mostly about just really pretty imagery. It wasn't focused on selling We actually didn't even do an ad campaign on Pinterest But gathered enough of a community on Pinterest to give that inspiration of how to use our products by creating beautiful photos and imagery and We created that community on print it on Pinterest that people felt drawn to we use Instagram for Brand credibility and social proof by using what's called UGC or user generated content And I'll talk a lot about that because that was something that really kind of propelled our brand again compared to other to other competitors in our market and One second So yeah, we use Instagram for that. We used Twitter and LinkedIn to drive SEO engagement to our blog posts on our website So as you can see you kind of have you just have to understand all the different platforms that are out there and be sure to leverage them appropriately so that you can bring the right audience to your to your brand So compelling content is in summary It's a powerful tool captures intention builds trust and drives engagement to achieve this your content needs to strike a Delicate balance it needs to be relatable to your audience's experience while standing out from the vast sea of information That's available and by offering unique value and addressing your audience's needs and desires You can create content that resonates deeply establishes trust and captures their attention in an increasingly crowded digital landscape so Understanding your audience. This is probably one of the most important things for marketers brand managers Social media managers to understand their audience It allows you to tailor your content speak their language know their wants and desires and address their needs directly By creating personalized experiences. You can then foster a deeper connection and enhance engagement Additionally audience insights can help you create content that captures attention and drives results Precise targeting tools enable you to reach the right people and optimize your ad spend if you choose to do so and ultimately Understanding your audience builds trust loyalty and long-term relationships, which is so so important in managing social media brands Questions to ask to identify your target ad to identify your target audience Because how do you figure out who those people are? Are you trying to reach a certain region? Are you a global brand? What age is your cut your ideal customer? What platforms are they usually on? This is how you determine where you're going to spend your time and energy on the various platforms are out there If you're like a local a local company that provides a local service Maybe tiktok may not be the one for you because that's more of like a global reach Maybe you want to focus on Facebook ads and things like that So you really want to make sure that you are identifying your target audience Analyzing your existing customer base to understand their interests and behaviors. You can conduct surveys Polls on social media, you know, there's a lot of those Q&A polls Question polls that you can gather direct insights from your audience to see what it is that they're looking for So the process of understanding your audience is ongoing you have to really just look at the market research gain a deeper understanding and Require and it requires regular review and analysis to refine your understanding of The audience that you're targeting So user-generated content. I mentioned this before so this Using user-generated content is what helped propel my brand social media presence to the top and really stand out from other competitors and So the use of UGC it really taps into fundamental aspects of human psychology It provides social proof by showcasing real customers building trust and credibility Human beings we have an inherent tendency to look to others for guidance and validation UGC provides social proof as it showcases real customers using and enjoying a brand's products or services So when we see people posting our our product in a dinner party that they're hosting or making a beautiful charcuterie tray You know and using our sustainable dinnerware for that We basically can then reach out to them through Instagram and say we really love what you did here Can we share it to our page and by doing that you create this sort of? Brand loyalty brand kind of credibility these people love to be seen. They love that we recognize their work And seeing others engage with the brand builds trust and credibility Influencing our perception that the brand that our brand is reliable and worth engaging with it also satisfies UGC satisfies our need for identity and belonging allowing individuals to Express themselves and become part of a community Centered around the brand it in vote it evokes emotional engagement people like seeing other people comments on their work And ultimately as the brand you save a lot of time and energy in creating in creating your own content because you're leveraging Other people's content to support their brand So you tag them you should give them a shout out you thank them for using their product And it just kind of causes in this ripple effect of people liking that and enjoying that as well Storytelling and visual appeal Also very important you guys probably for yourself and when you guys are scrolling on social media apps You may be more drawn to a page that just has a very Complete concise sort of storytelling aesthetic a visual appeal something that is Consistent something where you go to that page and you're like I know what this brand does and I know what they offer This is super important in capturing attention building emotional connections and conveying brand messages Not like and then like I mentioned before not every customer may be in the market for your product at the time that they see your post Or they see your page But if you spend time on the storytelling piece Creating your brand story Having a visually aesthetic feed where they can see exactly what it is that you offer something that is you know Just very consistent. They'll remember. They'll have more chance of remembering Your brand when it comes time to making that purchase so this this storytelling visual appeal is definitely a way to Stand out from your competitors and just have that spot in Your consumer in that buyers mind share Much like storytelling and visual appeal your brand's relevance and reach are also key factors in creating compelling social media Content because they determine the size and engagement of your audience So I would have a bi-weekly check-in with my content creation team and we would review metrics We would review the analytics we see which posts are working Which are not the new tools that were in place because like I mentioned the landscape is changing and now with AI in place Like how can we use certain AI tools to help? You know be more efficient and so forth And so if you're not evolving with what is happening or constantly improving competitors will definitely sneak up past you very quickly and The second paragraph talks about diversification, which I've also mentioned about it's super important to be able to understand Where are you going to spend your energy on the various platforms? I think I just heard that meta is now coming out with a Twitter competitor where they're going to be able to have long-form text writing that people can engage with Twitter obviously now is doing they're going to have a podcasting site and they're going to do long-term videos So all these platforms are all competing with one another and they're all going to try and Include some of the things that they know people are looking for so it's really important to keep up to speed on all that and See what makes the most sense for your brand because not every brand obviously Has a use for all the different social Social media platforms that are out there Another stat 91% of businesses use three or more social media platforms for their marketing efforts and Then In summary for understanding your audience so you know understand their interests their preferences Secondly leverage the UGC content to tap into the creativity of your audience and showcase authentic experiences and next prioritize relevance and reach by strategically distributing your content across multiple platforms and Harness the power of storytelling to emotionally connect with your audience and visually inspire them So I want to end the last two minutes of my talk I you know, it's just really to kind of for those of you again who are here for the first talk this morning AI is is changing the game big time I mean not only in content media creation, but in chatbots in Optimization and so forth and so this could be a talk in itself as you saw this morning And even when it comes to social media, there's just so much involved by the time that I was making these slides There has been so many more tools and so many more ways to kind of optimize social media content creation, but the amount of time that people are going to save and Simultaneously explode the local the local or global businesses is definitely going to be profound It's going to change a lot in terms of how people are going to use this So like I mentioned even in social media content creation You know if you're a social media marketer You're a content creator. You're an analytics expert You're an advertiser and AI can help with all of these your customer service representative And so there's so many different tools I just put a couple here, but it's already changing these are already outdated because there's so many new ones coming up every day So even creating the right captions knowing the right keywords knowing the right We know depending on the platform that you use there is a Lot chat GPT is honestly old news because there's so many more Specialized AI tools that are out there that can help social media marketers create the content that they need And you know just again to summarize like these are the things that AI will revolutionize this space so saving time Personalization consists that that's more about the marketing consistency Optimization and creativity, but the things about storytelling that emotional appeal those are the things that are going to remain right? So that's that's where even though AI may replace some of these things understanding that human psychology of what it is that people are looking for and even Directing the chatbots and all these things to make it seem like it's this human person that's connecting with you is going to be super important Gary Vaynerchuk may maybe some of you know him. He is probably one of my favorite social media wizards and One of his famous quotes is social media is not a media. The key is to listen Engage and build relationships. It's not a one-way street So social media the reason why it's called social is because it's about that two-way interaction And that's what people are looking for on these apps. They want to build a relationship But you need to listen engage it. It's a tool for building connections Relationships with people rather than simply broadcasting a message to a passive audience it highlights the need for businesses to actively listen and build authentic relationships based on trust and Creating value. It is absolutely important to make sure that you understand your audience's need their pain points their interest and Create focus on providing value Thank you so much share that's my that's me. These are all of my Social handles a Twitter first tick tock and Instagram and I'm happy to take any questions Well, first of all, thank you Wow, wow, wow, wow I think you gave us so much to think about so I want to thank you. We will open it up to questions I'm gonna bring you out here a little bit For the Q&A I'll kick us off But if anyone is percolating you have a question you want to ask I assume you do yes Our friends in the yellow shirts will call we got a lot of questions. So maybe I'll save my question for a later time and date Let's take this gentleman in the stripes Thank you. Yeah, great talk. Thank you for all that My questions about staying authentic I think there's a balance to be struck between getting the brand out there and also creating content that's engaging Have you got any advice on monetizing getting brand awareness and affiliations and things like that whilst Creating good content that people want to stay engaged with yeah, I'll give examples for what we did with some of our brand from So for some of our company brands so we weren't the only brand that was selling the product that we do sell and So what we looked at is what were other brands doing? How were they? How were they kind of showing this authenticity? And it came as simple as like the way that we even posted about the members of our community the way We even engaged with DMs that we would receive it was you know welcoming in it's not our fault You know even something as simple as we don't refer to you know The 50,000 people that are on the Instagram as our followers. We refer to them as our community so things like that where you're just really kind of shaping into or thinking about The human sort of psychology of like we're real people behind this brand and you can see us Here's how we do here's how we make our product here's you know here are the people behind it and here's you Here's the community that use it I think those simple things can kind of keep that authenticity there rather than you know Just kind of posting and trying to feel like you're constantly Selling because I think humans also don't like to be bombarded with that either so it's more about like finding that right balance of You know being Being the human behind the brand especially if that's important for the type of product that you're selling That's a wonderful question. Thank you for that question. I think we got one over here in a white shirt. It looks white The lights really distort your beautiful. Thank you. Thank you I was wondering if you have any insights on the difference between Products and services when it comes to social media how to position them. That's a good question. Um, so I I actually when I first moved to Lisbon three years ago, I Started a tiktok account that gained a pretty big following right away talking about the cultural differences between an American and American living in Portugal and when I saw that increase in Followers, I was like, okay How do I how do I leverage? How can what kind of service can I provide? What kind of service can I now? You know Do to like help people either move or like help them answer questions do consulting calls It's a very different you you bring up a great question because it's very different I ended up not moving in that direction for own personal reasons So I can't give you specific examples of like how that worked. I Ended up moving towards the direction of building our own brands and building a brand building a product versus a service Definitely very different because as a service you also kind of have to Sell yourself with the product you're selling the product in the use case of the product And so with with the service there's a lot more that goes involved a lot more time Obviously that goes involved because you are that person behind that service you need to have obviously a website You need to have you know things like that not not that you don't with a product But it's just a little bit of a different sort of thing so I don't have personal experience of how to compare the two but I would say Selling a product is just a little bit easier, but that's biased because that's what I've been doing so Do we have we have time for one more question you got this this fella here, I still think it's green It still really looks green. Oh It's a different guy. Oh, I'm so sorry How lovely to meet you this gentleman in the green Okay, it's time to get my eye exam. Thank you your question, sir Thank you. So in terms with user-generated content and even Quite a follow-up of the question the difference between products and services Any tips ideas on how to use user-generated content for services, especially when we have a really Low following or we are just starting on social media. Yeah, I do because even for our brands we Using UGC we started when we had two hundred people following our brand and so The tip is really again It goes back into that authenticity and really being able to share your story So so one of the brands that we did and I can't share the name because we're in the middle of an acquisition right now But one of the brands was a brand that a lot of people would use Use to create charcuterie boards. So for those that aren't familiar with charcuterie boards They're a collection of meat and cheese and fruit and vegetables displayed beautifully on a tray or a plate And so we basically we knew that that was going to be a huge community Especially in the States during the pandemic that whole thing just skyrocketed that that area And so we started reaching out to charcuterie influencers if you if you will that had a larger following and said Hey, we really love your content We have these sustainable trays that we think would be excellent for your charcuterie We'd love to send you some if you can create some charcuterie and then in return we can use them on our site So something as simple as that and we didn't have a lot of followers at that time that we started reaching out to them but we knew the importance of Building a community by using user-generated content from early on so It's really just about reaching out to them and getting their buy-in Okay, thank you. I was more on the services part Which I think it's harder to get user-generated content Especially if we are a consultant or a coach or we don't have something that is more visual I agree. I agree. It is it does it is a little bit more challenging with with the service-based Businesses, I don't have any tips. Okay. Thank you Thank you so much for that wonderful question. I Think next up we have our first coffee hour. Is that right? So Not so fast my friends What are you doing first? We have to present Cheryl with our lovely gift Please give Cheryl another round of applause and thank her for her wonderful contribution. Thank you so much I hope you enjoy this gift